IIHF releases a statement on blown too-many men call during Canada vs Czechia

The IIHF have released a statement of sorts through TSN analyst Pierre LeBrun, following a blatant missed too-many men call that nearly cost Team Canada its Olympic tournament during their quarterfinal game against Czechia.

Czech forward Ondrej Palat scored the game's go-ahead goal with 6 skaters on the ice for his team, which apparently no one, including the on-ice officials, saw.

In the end though, Canada tied and won the game so there's no hard done. Still, the fact that Canada's tournament could have ended on this play and the fact that no officials saw it happen, is cause for major concern. To address some of this concern, the IIHF released a tepid statement.

From LeBrun:

So, basically: "Yeah we saw it. We messed up. We'll try not to mess up again. At least, no too badly."

As we've become accustomed to with NHL officiating, no one will suffer any consequences for this egregiously blown call. And, honestly, who really cares? When the result of the game isn't decided by officiating, that's about the best you can hope for in a hockey game. The truth is that hockey is a fast game and calls gets missed all the time. There's no sense on dwelling on officiating from a players' perspective.

From the officials' perspective though, I hope they mean what they say about refocusing for the rest of the tournament. Just like the players, the officials will have to be at their best as we enter the medal rounds.

Read directly below for our earlier report on this story by Hockey Feed staff writer Chris Gosselin, published as events occurred.

What could have been the biggest scandal of the Olympics was narrowly erased by resilience, and pretty much, overtime heroics.

According to TVA Sports insider Renaud Lavoie, Czechia had six players on the ice for an extended moment during their third goal of the game, an infraction that should have resulted in a penalty for too many men and the goal being waved off. Instead, play continued.

Moments later, Ondrej Palat buried the go-ahead goal, stunning Canada with less than eight minutes remaining.

The play has since been pointed out by many insiders and pundits.

The sequence unfolded right after Jordan Binnington made a massive save on Radko Gudas. The puck stayed alive, chaos followed, and Palat capitalized. That’s when the alleged missed call occurred. No whistle. No review. Goal stands.

For a brief moment, it felt like Canada’s Olympic run was slipping away under a cloud of controversy.

Tension surged across the country, but so did Nick Suzuki. With 3:27 left in regulation, Suzuki tipped a Devon Toews point shot past the Czech goaltender to tie the game and force overtime, with everything on the line.

And once again, Mitch Marner delivered in the clutch.

Instead of debating a historic officiating blunder, Canada is heading to the semifinals. But if Suzuki hadn’t found that equalizer, this missed call might have defined the tournament and ignited outrage for years to come.

Still after the game, head coach Radim Rulík was very, very unhappy with the referees, saying this:

“The referees really worry me. What they’re allowing against us is unacceptable. After every game, we send them two or three clips where they confirm that the opponent should have been penalized. I don’t understand it. I just don’t get it. I feel like everyone is afraid to call anything against Canada. We were basically playing against six players. I don’t want to make excuses, and no one has to agree with me, but the video backs me up. In this respect, it’s not a fair tournament. It was happening to us even against Denmark. The mix of NHL and European referees hasn’t worked - everyone calls the game differently. I watch two NHL games on replay every single day. The play Nečas made today - when his stick was touched on the breakaway - is always a penalty in the NHL. But suddenly, not here. I’m really sorry about it. The guys deserved a top-level performance from the referees. They always admit afterward that we were right, but nothing ever changes. We should have had power plays against Canada. But they were afraid Pasta or Nečas would score another power-play goal. And if Gudas was penalized, then Doughty should have been too for the hit on Pasta.”

But I say that if he wants to play the whatabout game, Czechia's 3-2 goal would be an obvious place to start with...